The field of the invention is nuclear magnetic resonance (“NMR”) imaging methods and systems. More particularly, the invention relates to the acquisition of NMR images indicative of flow, or motion.
When a substance such as human tissue is subjected to a uniform magnetic field (polarizing field B0), the individual magnetic moments of the spins in the tissue attempt to align with this polarizing field, but precess about it in random order at their characteristic Larmor frequency. If the substance, or tissue, is subjected to a magnetic field (excitation field B1) which is in the x-y plane and which is near the Larmor frequency, the net aligned moment, Mz, may be rotated, or “tipped”, into the x-y plane to produce a net transverse magnetic moment Mt. A signal is emitted by the excited spins after the excitation signal B1 is terminated, this signal may be received and processed to form an image.
When utilizing these signals to produce images, magnetic field gradients (Gx Gy and Gz) are employed. Typically, the region to be imaged is scanned by a sequence of measurement cycles in which these gradients vary according to the particular localization method being used. The resulting set of received NMR signals are digitized and processed to reconstruct the image using one of many well known reconstruction techniques.
The prevailing methods used to acquire NMR signals and reconstruct images use a variant of the well known Fourier transform (FT) imaging technique, which is frequently referred to as “spin-warp”. The spin-warp technique is discussed in an article entitled “Spin-Warp NMR Imaging and Applications to Human Whole-Body Imaging” by W. A. Edelstein et al., Physics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 25, pp. 751-756 (1980). It employs a variable amplitude phase encoding magnetic field gradient pulse prior to the acquisition of NMR spin-echo signals to phase encode spatial information in the direction of this gradient. In a two-dimensional implementation (2DFT), for example, spatial information is encoded in one direction by applying a phase encoding gradient (Gy) along that direction, and then a spin-echo signal is acquired in the presence of a readout magnetic field gradient (Gx) in a direction orthogonal to the phase encoding direction. The readout gradient present during the spin-echo acquisition encodes spatial information in the orthogonal direction. In a typical 2DFT pulse sequence, the magnitude of the phase encoding gradient pulse Gy is incremented (ΔGy) in the sequence of views that are acquired during the scan to produce a set of NMR data from which an entire image can be reconstructed.
To increase the rate at which image frames are acquired, image quality may be sacrificed by acquiring fewer phase encoding views, or by using faster pulse sequences that inherently result in lower quality images. With the spin-warp methods, therefore, there is a trade-off between the number of views that are acquired to achieve the desired image resolution and quality, and the rate at which NMR data for a complete image may be acquired.
Diagnostic studies of the human vasculature have many medical applications. X-ray imaging methods such as digital subtraction angiography (“DSA”) have found wide use in the visualization of the cardiovascular system, including the heart and associated blood vessels. Images showing the circulation of blood in the arteries and veins of the kidneys and the carotid arteries and veins of the neck and head have immense diagnostic utility. Unfortunately, however, these x-ray methods subject the patient to potentially harmful ionizing radiation and often require the use of an invasive catheter to inject a contrast agent into the vasculature to be imaged.
Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) phenomenon to produce images of the human vasculature. Such angiograms provide visualization of the cardiovascular system without subjecting the patient to ionizing radiation. Two basic MRA techniques have been proposed and evaluated. The first class, time-of-flight (TOF) techniques, consists of methods which exploit the differences in signal saturation that exist between flowing blood and stationary tissue. Flowing blood, which is moving through the excited section, is continually refreshed by spins experiencing fewer excitation pulses and is, therefore, less saturated. This effect is magnified by injecting a contrast agent into the patient and timing the acquisition when the contrast bolus flows through the arteries of interest. The result is the desired image contrast between the high-signal blood and the low-signal stationary tissues.
MR methods have also been developed that encode motion into the phase of the acquired signal as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 32,701. These form the second class of MRA techniques and are known as phase contrast (PC) methods. Currently, most PC MRA techniques acquire two images, with each image having a different sensitivity to the same velocity component. Angiographic images are then obtained by forming either the phase difference or complex difference between the pair of velocity-encoded images. Phase contrast MRA techniques have been extended so that they are sensitive to velocity components in all three orthogonal directions, but this requires additional data acquisition.
Prevailing MRA techniques employ a method in which k-space is sampled along Cartesian coordinates using a 2DFT or 3DFT fast gradient recalled echo method. While the PC MRA technique does not require the injection of contrast agents into the patient, it is not used in many clinical applications because it usually requires from four to six times as long as the TOF method to acquire the NMR data for a phase contrast MRA image. This is because a separate phase image may be acquired for each axis of motion (x, y and z), and two images (with different velocity encoding) must be acquired for each axis of motion.
The phase contrast technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re 32,701 is typically used for imaging exams where functional velocity information is desired. It is not usually considered competitive with time of flight (TOF) imaging because the time required for the phase contrast examination is typically four times longer than for TOF assuming the same spatial resolution. In addition, the velocity encoding gradient first moment (“VENC”) value must be separately optimized for various vessels that might be present. If the VENC is set too low, high velocities will alias and can give zero signal. If the VENC is set too high, the sensitivity too low velocities will be small. Also, quantitative velocity information usually requires careful selection of an imaging plane perpendicular to the flow so that the in-plane image resolution can be exploited. Typically this is done using 2D slices and the resolution in the slice direction is poor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,922 discloses a method called PIPR which uses undersampled projection imaging in 2-dimensions and Fourier encoding in the third dimension. This technique provides approximately the factor of four reduction in scan time required to catch up in speed with TOF imaging. However, it does not deal with the VENC selection problem or the non-isotropic spatial resolution problems.
The recently developed 3D projection acquisition method called VIPR disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent appln. Ser. No. 09/767,757 filed on Jan. 23, 2001 employs an undersampled projection in three dimensions. This provides greatly increased opportunity for speed increases beyond the hybrid PIPR technique in U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,922.